Movies
The
Truman Show
(Paramount Pictures). Raves mount for the summer smash, in
which Jim Carrey plays a man whose entire life has been televised without his
knowledge. "[T]he nerviest feature to come out of Hollywood in recent memory,"
says the Los Angeles Times ' Kenneth Turan. Reviewers say director Peter
Weir's comedy about Orwellian mind control and entertainment-age pop culture
"nails the Zeitgeist " (Jay Carr, the Boston Globe ). Dissenters
declare The Truman Show overhyped considering its clunky plot and
simple-minded message, which boils down to "[E]ither you are a grotesque victim
of the moguls or an unmitigated rebel" (Edward Rothstein, the New York
Times ). (Click here for the official site and here for David
Edestein's review in
Slate
.)
A
Perfect Murder
(Warner Bros.). Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 thriller Dial
M for Murder transposed to Manhattan, "sexed up, opened out, and finished
off with a disappointing bang-bang climax" (Edelstein,
Slate
). Surprisingly, many critics declare it better than the
stagy original, "more fluent and sensuous" (Stephen Holden, the New York
Times ). The virtues of the remake: It has a darker edge and a stronger
cast, which includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, and Michael Douglas.
It's also said to replicate the original's flaws, in that it isn't very scary.
(Click here for
the official site.)
Kurt and Courtney
(Roxie Releasing). Critics welcome the chance
to review British documentarian Nick Broomfield's controversial portrait of
grunge rockers Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. The film, which considers (then
rejects) the theory that Love murdered Cobain, was pulled from this year's
Sundance Film Festival when Love threatened to sue. Reviewers delight in
Broomfield's portrayal of Love as a violent control freak. "Ms. Love shreds her
own credibility," says the New York Times ' Jon Pareles. A few attack
Broomfield, who also made a film about Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, as a "lame
sensationalist" engaged in "character assassination" (Jack Mathews,
Newsday ).
Television
Sex
and the City
(HBO; Sundays, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Critics roll their eyes at
HBO's latest sitcom, an adaptation of sex columnist Candace Bushnell's memoirs.
They chide the series, produced by Melrose Place creator Darren Star,
for being unfunny and sodden with easy moral outrage at the jet-set crowd. "Is
it any wonder that the self-absorbed, the promiscuous, the drugged and the
drunk ... lead lonely, empty lives?" (Barbara Phillips, the Wall Street
Journal ). Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays the Bushnell character, is said
to lack her usual charm. "She's in love with the camera. Unfortunately, it's
unrequited" (Tom Shales, the Washington Post ). (Click here for the show's risqué
site.)
Theater
The
Tony Awards. Broadway congratulates itself on its recent success--ticket
sales increased 12 percent this year--which critics grudgingly attribute to
investments by Disney and Michael Ovitz's company Livent. "This season Broadway
went corporate," says New York 's Jeremy Gerard. The revived awards show
also gets credit, especially its emcee, Rosie O'Donnell, who proselytizes
incessantly for the Great White Way. Sourpusses call O'Donnell a tacky host:
"Are Tampax jokes that funny?" (Clive Barnes, the New York Post ).
Art
"Edward
Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York City). The first American retrospective for the 19 th century
English pre-Raphaelite tries to redeem him from his reputation as a
sentimentalist. It partly succeeds. Some critics celebrate Burne-Jones' use of
eclectic media (paint, tapestry, stained glass) and varied imagery (Arthurian,
classical, pastoral). Others continue to dismiss his work as sappy and say he
"can't paint very well" (Mark Stevens, New York ). Time 's Robert
Hughes says Burne-Jones has become popular because "confrontational Modernism
is losing its mandate in our fin de siècle ." (Click here for Christopher Benfey's
review of the show in
Slate
.)
Book
Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country
, by William
Finnegan (Random House). High praise for The New Yorker writer's stories
about disaffected youth. Critics applaud Finnegan for his in-depth reporting
and sympathetic portrayal of the lives of a gang banger, a crack dealer, and a
skinhead. A few carp that Finnegan's dry prose shows how far literary
journalism has fallen from the pyrotechnics of its originators, such as Tom
Wolfe. Others take issue with Finnegan's claim that these are especially hard
times to grow up in: "One wants to ask, 'Harder compared to what?' To life in
the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression?" (Lance Morrow, Time ).
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
June
3:
Movie -- The Last
Days of Disco ;
Movie -- Hope
Floats ;
Television -- More
Tales of the City (Showtime);
Television -- A
Bright Shining Lie (HBO) and Thanks of a Grateful Nation
(Showtime);
Art --"Mark
Rothko";
Theater -- Corpus Christi .
May
28:
Movie -- Godzilla ;
Movie -- Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas ;
Movie --Cannes Film
Festival Roundup;
Book -- Freedomland , by Richard Price;
Books -- Remembering
Mr. Shawn's "New Yorker": The Invisible Art of Editing , by Ved Mehta;
Here But Not Here: A Love Story , by Lillian Ross;
Television -- The Larry Sanders Show (Showtime).
May
20:
Death --Frank
Sinatra;
Television -- Seinfeld finale;
Movie -- Bulworth ;
Movie -- The Horse
Whisperer ;
Book -- The
Everlasting Story of Nory , by Nicholson Baker;
Book -- Cities of the
Plain , by Cormac McCarthy;
Book -- Identity , by Milan Kundera, translated by Linda Asher.
May
13:
Movie -- Deep
Impact ;
Movie -- Character ;
Music -- Into the
Sun , by Sean Lennon;
Book -- Titan: The
Life and Times of John D. Rockefeller , by Ron Chernow;
Book -- The Time of
Our Time , by Norman Mailer;
Book -- A Widow for One Year , by John Irving.
--Franklin Foer
